Climate change is a pressing concern for the agricultural sector of both developed and developing countries due to the heavy reliance of this primary sector on climate conditions. However, little research effort has gone into understanding underlying cognitive factors that implicitly and explicitly guide the climate change adaptation process of farmers and the combined influence of socio-economic and psychological factors on their adaptive behaviour. Since the importance of psychological factors and the reinforcement of psychology and economics to each other in explaining human behaviour have been well recognised, this paper employs behavioural economic viewpoints, protection motivation theory, and the theory of planned behaviour as the foundation. An integrated conceptual framework has been developed that takes into account psychological as well as socio-economic factors and examines the interaction among those variables in explaining farmers’ decision-making process regarding climate change adaptation. The framework aims to provide a better understanding of farmers’ adaptive behaviour in response to climate change.

PhD Candidate, School of Agriculture, Food, and Wine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Hoa Dang is a lecturer in the Economics Department, Faculty of Economics, Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Her first degree is sea transport economics and her Master’s degree is development economics. She is currently doing her PhD at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Environmental issues are her research interests.

Associate Professor, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Johan Bruwer is Associate Professor of Wine Business in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide in Australia. His research focus is consumer behaviour and trend analysis, market segmentation, and wine tourism.